Subject: AG-NEWS #149: June 5, 1998
To:"AG-News Service"
** Lives changed, community takes notice, in Washington revival
(Hundreds saved at First Assembly in Centralia, Wash.) As reported
by Pastor Bill Bates to the Assemblies of God in Springfield Missour.
LIVES CHANGED, COMMUNITY TAKES NOTICE, IN WASHINGTON REVIVAL
Report from Pastor Bill Bates:
Becca Bates and her son Dustin were eating lunch at Wendy's in
Centralia, Wash., recently when they heard the commotion. With a
wail of sirens, an ambulance drove into the parking lot. A crowd
of people were gathering.
Curious, Bates and her son went outside. A 22-month-old baby lay
on the pavement and medical personnel were just beginning to work
on it. The child had stopped breathing, lost most of its color,
and showed no signs of life.
Dustin, 17, stepped forward and did the unthinkable.
"Would you mind if I held the baby," he asked the medic.
Incredibly, he was allowed to take the child. "Would you mind if
I prayed?" he asked next.
As Dustin began praying for the child in front of the crowd,
Becca went to the distraught mother and prayed with and
comforted her.
About that time the baby started to move again. Dustin put the
baby on his shoulder and started patting it. Soon the baby began
to get color back in its face. Then it began to cry.
The mom asked Becca to ride in the ambulance with her. Dustin
drove their van to the hospital while Becca accompanied the mom.
She witnessed to the ambulance driver the whole way about the
power of God to change life. The baby was fine.
For the Bates family, public ministry is a regular part of life.
Becca's husband, the Rev. Bill Bates, has pastored First Assembly
of God in Centralia for the past 11 years. But Becca and Dustin
were acting on more than their Christian convictions. They both
felt spiritually energized by the continuing revival their church
has been experiencing.
"I can't deny that it's a God-thing," Pastor Bates says of the
revival that is now in its eighth week. "We have people being
touched in just about every way. We had a lady healed of
fibromyalgia. A man with a bleeding ulcer was totally healed.
I've been in the ministry for 25 years and I've never seen
anything like this. Never felt anything like it. Never sensed
anything like it. You know, it's a pastor's dream. I stand up on
the platform and I see all these waves of hands out there, people
worshipping and praising God. It is an incredible thing. Jerry
gives the altar call and people literally run to the altar. We've
had to put lines on our platform for people to line up on."
"Jerry," in this case, is Jerry Gaffney, a layman who has been
invited by an increasing number of churches to hold revival
services. Gaffney does not hold credentials with any religious
group, but numbers of pastors in the Assemblies of God and other
churches in the Washington State area heartily endorse
his ministry.
"I heard about what God was doing through his ministry," Pastor
Bates says, "so I started to find out where he was and I would
follow him. I walked away from his meetings every time saying,
'Man, that's God. That's God there.' I couldn't deny it
everywhere I went. I called some pastors and asked them for
results. People's faith increased, more people came to prayer
meetings, churches had grown, there was greater enthusiasm in
the community."
After becoming convinced of Gaffney's legitimate outreach, Bates
invited him to First Assembly for his standard 2-week program.
"He doesn't come on a set date. He comes on a priority basis. For
instance, he's here with me right now until he feels and I feel
it's time to move on to the next church. Then he'll call the next
church and say, 'I'll see you Sunday.'"
Gaffney initially comes to a church for 2 weeks, holding two
meetings a day, 6 days a week. But if he believes his ministry
should continue, he remains indefinitely. In his nearly 2 months
at First Assembly, people from all walks of life have been
visibly impacted.
"We had one of our young people just touched with holy laughter,"
Bates remembers. "John Burney is a junior over at Rochester High
School. He's an athlete and one of the leaders on his campus.
Great kid. And God really touched him one night and he was
laughing and had a grin all over his face. He went to school the
next day with that same grin and started to do the same laughter
and got called into the vice principal's office for it. They
thought he was on something, they thought he was doing something
he shouldn't be doing. And he was saying, 'Hey, I've been going
to church and Jesus has been touching my life and I'm just full
of God.' So that's touched a lot of friends there at his campus.
A lot of them have come and given their lives to Christ."
Bates estimates at least 200 people have committed or recommitted
their lives to Christ. And First Assembly only has a congregation
of about 200-250.
Some 60-90 people have been coming to the 10:30 a.m. meetings
which go as late as 3 p.m. During the evening services that start
at 7, "We've had as many as 278 pack out our place," Bates says.
"With a good average of 220-230 each night."
People often come forward in the middle of a service for
salvation. Bates remembers six people who raised their hands and
asked to get saved just during the offering the first week
of services.
"Our first baptismal service I baptized 37," he shares. "Last
week I baptized 33. Sunday night we baptized 6 more. Of the 33
the other night, 11 were not filled with the Holy Spirit. But 9
of those 11 were filled with the Holy Spirit before they were
baptized. One lady was filled coming up out of the water."
Bates believes this revival has had a permanent effect on his
congregation and on the Centralia community at large.
"God is just really doing a great work," he stresses. "On the
side of our platform we have some garbage cans. And people have
brought in rock CDs and tapes, pornography, magazines, all kinds
of dolls and witchcraft stuff, drug paraphernalia, medicine bags.
We now have eight 33-gallon barrels full. I'd say we're looking
at at least $5000 worth of stuff. We're going to have a
huge bonfire."
"I've learned more in these last 7 weeks about ministry than I
think I've learned in the previous 20 years," Bates says. "It's
frontline ministry."
AG-NEWS: The Assemblies of God News & Information Service, (c) 1998
A service of the Assemblies of God's Office of Public Relations.
This listserv was created to inform the media and public of
current events within the Fellowship and continuing developments
among its many ministries.
Sam Drake AKA OPfirstAGkid